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Friday, October 28, 2011

Want To Get Angry?

Watch this.

This morning while jogging on a treadmill, I was scanning news channels and came across the gruesome footage of Iraq veteran, Scott Olsen, who had his skull fractured by a tear gas canister in the Occupy Oakland protest. Scott Olsen served two tours of duty in Iraq and is now a proud member of Iraq Veterans Against The War. As you can see from this video at minute 3:30 shot by Raleigh Latham, Scott is calmly standing in his Marines Camis in front of the barricades not provoking anyway. Cut to the video embedded above and you can see Scott down on the ground and then when protesters run to his aid, a police officer lobs another canister into the huddled crowd. Scott is carried away by the crowd. The look on this kid's face, a kid who has seen war, is haunting. Here he is, home sweet home, the land of the free, exercising his right to protest (peacefully, I might add!) and he he's holding his skull together as people carry him away from tear gas and smoke and harm's way. Looks a lot like war footage to me. I turned the television off and flipped on my iPod and was pleasantly surprised to find Radiohead's Sit Down, Stand Up from their Hail To The Thief album up next on my Playlist. I cranked up the treadmill, cranked up the volume, and tried to get the image of Scott's glazed over look out of my head. But I couldn't. And as Thom York's haunting, melancholic voice seeped in through the headphones with the words "Sit Down, Stand Up...Walk Into the Jaws of Hell...We Can Wipe You Out Anytime, We Can Wipe You Out" and then exploded into its fast-paced techno beats and bass, I felt myself angry, finally affected by a protest going on in my backyard. I admit, I have not joined the crowds at Zuccotti Park and two days ago, I stood and watched a protest outside of Bank of America. But it doesn't mean I don't support or sympathize and agree with EVERYTHING they are protesting about at Occupy Wall St. I have three jobs, my days are long, I even work on the weekends, just to pay my rent in New York and pay off my suffocating student loan debt. I have not had the time and trust me if I did, I would be picking up a sign and losing my voice, too. But this video made me realize there's no more excuses. I either need to get my ass down there and say something or write about it here. I'm working on trying to do both. But for now, here is a link to DONATE to the cause. And if you don't know what all this is about, please click here, now.